Oecologia (2005) 143, 396-401

Manuela van Munster, Arne Janssen, Alain Clérivet and Johannes van den Heuvel (2005)
Can plants use an entomopathogenic virus as a defense against herbivores?
Oecologia 143 (3), 396-401
Abstract: It is by now well established that plants use various strategies to defend themselves against herbivores. Besides conventional weapons such as spines and stinging hairs and sophisticated chemical defenses, plants can also involve the enemies of the herbivores in their defense. It has been suggested that plants could even use entomopathogens as part of their defense strategies. In this paper, we show that Brassica oleraceae plants that are attacked by Myzus persicae aphids infected with an entomopathogenic parvovirus (M. persicae densovirus) transport the virus through the phloem locally and systematically. Moreover, healthy aphids that fed on the same leaf, but separated from infected aphids were infected via the plant. Hence, this is proof of the principle that plants can be vectors of an insect virus and can possibly use this virus as a defense against herbivores.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Manuela van Munster, Arne Janssen

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
transmission/dispersal
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Myzus persicae	Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)
Hemiambidensovirus hemipteran2 (entomopathogen)	Myzus persicae	Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)